Page 227 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Alora eyed the other side, eyed the almost too-far distance?—

Footsteps rounded the tower.

She didn’t give herself a second to reconsider. Alora paced six steps backward and hurled herself over the edge. Steam and heat and Firekeeper tried to lay their claim, but she refused them. Falling would not be her end. No. She would land on the other side and then?—

It knocked the breath from her.

Jagged edge of rock and dirt slammed into her torso and cracked her already shattered rib. Alora grappled for a stronghold, ignoring the searing pain, hearing laughter and shouting as she pulled herself up the ledge.

Then. Pain.

So much pain.Alora gripped her ribs, wheezing. The flat of her back on grass.

The others—they were only seconds from leaping. Only seconds from having her again.

Against the pain, Alora screamed as she pushed herself up and ran. Into the trees. Every step, sheer agony as she clung to the bark of pines and sprucewood, not entirely certain if they were holding her upright or if the burning pain from her collar was.

She didn’t dare look behind and ran. Ran through her body screaming that it couldn’t. Ran until a streak of ebony and shale slipped from behind a tree.

Aiden.

Alora blinked, shook her head. The sight of him standing there … in his white tunic, which was fluttering open in the breeze. She went to shout for him, but his head snapped behind her, flashing his half-human teeth.

Alora dared to glimpse over her shoulder, catching the silhouettes flanking each other, weaving in the distance, with spears aimed in front of them. Their cold, predatory eyes …

As soon as she whirled to Aiden, nothing but endless forest waited. She didn’t understand. He would have waited for her—ran to her. He wouldn’t have left her there?—

A hollow thump sunk into the tree to her left.

White braids tickled her cheek as her pupils flared, scanning the spear that had narrowly missed her ear.

Alora vaulted forward, catching chortled sighs and grunts of disappointment from the crowd when another swoosh passed by. It was pointless to dwell on it, to think that some of those watching actually cared she survived while others rooted for her death.

Hurtling through the forest, Alora marked every movement, every snap of a branch, anything dark that could be her sea captain. A rumbling river announced its presence long before she saw it.

Weaving through the outskirts of the trees, Alora almost collapsed the moment she saw the water. And if by any luck, the females prowling the forest weren’t as skilled as she was trained to be and would take some time to catch up.

And once across …

Alora could only hope the water would carry her enough away that they wouldn’t find her downstream, and without a second thought, she jumped in.

The waterburned. Worse than the collar. It felt like she was being roasted on a spit.

Her skin feathered to angry crimson, pebbling blood from her pores as the water washed what was left of the runes from Jade away.

Alora pumped her arms. Kicked her feet. Desperate to reach the other side but her boots … her starsdamned boots got in the way. She steadied her breathing, reached through the scorching sting of the river, and pulled off her boots, throwing them as far as she could onto the bank.

Behind, voices broke the treeline.

“You can’t run from us!”

Watch me.

Something whirred past her head. Stones—sharp ones like arrowheads.Then another. Three more, all nearly missing her flesh.

Alora kept her eyes on the bank, on her boots. Kicking through the sizzling agony and pain.

Water splashed behind her. Females screamed, and a faint smirk contorted Alora’s face as those females experienced the same torment.

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